#penumbra

In honor of me finishing Tales of the Second Citadel yesterday (and crying my eyes out), I made a bracelet based on the Wayward East, one of the 4 regions of their universe💛 I LOVE how it turned out. It invokes both the desert, the violet crystals of the Mirrored Plains and a little bit of Silvershore (the pearls and sea shells).

Curie, Penumbra's pet white rat, let out a small squeak of confusion, whisking her tail as looked at the laptop screen. The computer displayed the eBook version of Miss Heed: Confessions Of A Heroine, open to a page featuring an AI-generated picture of Penumbra—one where the algorithm had bizarrely rendered her mistress with four feet and six fingers on a hand.

"Man, this woman is already lying through her teeth, but she's also lazy enough to use AI," Sunblast rolled his eyes, crossing his tiny arms. "She's rich as heck and still needs cheap, fake photos to make herself look better."

"Rich would be an understatement, Sunblast," Penumbra said, shaking her head as she observed the uncanny image. "She's the daughter of James D. Kelly, of Big Saturday Night Live With James D. Kelly fame. It’s astounding she’d resort to something so blatantly digital and poorly made."

"Psst," Sunblast folded his arms tighter. "Everything about her is fake, from the merchandise to her hero cred. She just buys people off to look better than she actually is—which is obviously how she got out of rehab after brainwashing everyone. Including you."

He vividly remembered when Miss Heed had kidnapped Penumbra, forcing her onto a research team to engineer a permanent version of her brainwashing formula, turning heroes, villains, and civilians alike into docile love slaves.

"It makes me sick that she has the nerve to blame this all on Flug, too," Penumbra sighed, scanning a paragraph where Heed wholesale scapegoated the scientist. The book claimed Flug orchestrated the entire Cosmopolis crisis to build a villainous army, even brazenly alleging he tried to force a kiss on her. It was a despicable attempt to cloak herself as a victim just to regain public sympathy, all while masking a deeper plot that the higher-ups at P.E.A.C.E. seemed eager to sweep under the rug.

"As much as I dislike the guy," Sunblast admitted, a rare note of empathy in his voice, "not even Flug deserves this. Sure, he's the reason I got shrunk, but slandering him like this just to save her own skin is a low blow. Her story doesn't even hold up—she claims Flug wanted to 'change' and become a hero, when anyone who knows him knows he hates heroes with the fury of a thousand suns. Her entire narrative falls apart the second you look at the brainwashed villains."

"He usually doesn't care about people badmouthing his character," Penumbra said, gently petting Curie, "but being backstabbed like this by someone he considered a genuine friend... that's going to hurt. He told me once how much he struggled to socialize, and she was his only real friend back at the Black Hat Institute."

"Makes you almost want to give the guy a hug, despite his track record," Sunblast grunted.

"It really does," Penumbra agreed smoothly. Her gaze drifted to another page detailing Heed’s lifestyle. "It's also wild reading through these old stories of the exotic pets she used to keep—deer, peacocks, even toucans. Keeping a toucan ought to have been illegal given how heavily they're poached."

"Laws are just suggestions when you have a rich daddy," Sunblast replied dryly. "Her Uncle Adolfo was going to buy her a tiger back then. That's the level of absurd wealth we're dealing with. It explains why she has properties everywhere—I used to think P.E.A.C.E. was just favoring her, but it's just old money."

"I feel terrible thinking back on how those poor animals were treated," Penumbra said, her environmentalist instincts flaring. "Even that Pomeranian of hers gave me red flags from old photos. The poor dog never looked happy. She always treated living creatures like temporary fashion accessories rather than beings deserving of respect."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Sunblast agreed. "And look at this—she included a picture of herself cosplaying in my outfit. The audacity! After calling me 'outdated' while I was actively trying to rescue you, you'd think she wouldn't be caught dead associated with me."

"She has to maintain the illusion that she cared about your 'untimely demise,'" Penumbra said with a dry, amused smile. Curie squeaked in agreement. "Society loves to pretend it mourns you, even when I published clear proof that you were safe and alive in my care. People like Miss Heed are just a mirror of how superficial the world wants to be."

"Tell me about it," Sunblast muttered, remembering how quickly his protected city of Atreno had moved on, replacing him through a tone-deaf reality show. "The Heeds of the world thrive because people prefer shallow entertainment over actual heroes with substance."

"Sadly true," Penumbra murmured, her expression softening as she looked down at the tiny hero. "But despite everything, Sunblast, you've grown into the kind of real hero that someone like me—someone society labeled a villain—needed at her darkest moment."

Sunblast blinked, a flush creeping up his neck as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah... thanks. As always."

"You're very welcome," Penumbra smiled softly. "I mean every word. It takes a real hero to look past old grudges, see the humanity in someone else, and choose empathy over spite. Miss Heed might have millions of followers, a bloated PR team, and a line of glittering merchandise, but she’s hollow. You lost your size, your city, and your status, Sunblast... but you kept your soul. That’s something she’ll never be able to buy or generate with a prompt."

"Damn right," Sunblast grinned, his heroic bravado returning. "Besides, if she ever tries to release a line of 'Sunblast Memorial' AI crop tops, I’m suing for copyright infringement. I don't care if I have to type the legal briefs one giant keyboard key at a time."

"I'll gladly hold down the Shift key for you," Penumbra laughed, though her eyes hardened slightly as she looked back at the screen. "She thinks she can hide behind her wealth and rewrite the past, but shallow things always crack under pressure."

Curie reared up on her hind legs, raising a tiny paw as if pumping her fist in solidarity.

"Count me in," Sunblast said, cracking his tiny knuckles. "Whenever Flug or anyone else decides to set the record straight, we'll be ready."